Zombie PMs Brought out of Retirement to Criticise the Government.

 A few months ago we had warmonger Tony Blair getting involved in criticising the government over handling of the economy. 

Tony Blair. The PM that inherited a stable economy from the previous Tory Government. 

Tony Blair the PM that introduced in-work benefits to top up the wages of poorly-paid families at the expense of poorly paid-single people who didn't get any help.

But now, to cap it all, we have the one-eyed Gorgon weighing in. 

Yes, Gordon Brown, the PM that bailed out the banks at the expense of the taxpayer, the guy that called a patriotic lady a bigot. The archetypal politician corrupted by the Davos set.

Yep, he's weighed in: Former PM 'seeing poverty I did not expect to see again' as he warns people will go hungry and cold within months (msn.com)

Well Gordon, if I'm not mistaken you started the inflationary pressures by printing money and bailing out the banks 20 years ago. 

The coalition government that took over from you carried on and then the Tories presided over exactly the same policy.

You're all to blame for the mess we're in now. 

Two decades of money printing, relying on cheap labour and cheap Chinese goods to keep inflation down. 

At the end of the day it was inevitable that the ability to get away with it would come to an end, you just hoped it would be years down the line on someone else's watch. 

Fuck you all: All the successive Prime Ministers and Chancellors and governors of the Bank of England for what you have done. You are all culpable for a reckless policy that was sure to backfire at some point.

I don't care if every government in the West was doing it. They are all suffering now. But you should have known better and not followed the advice of the elite club of Davos, the IMF and the WEF.

All of you should have been prudent (remember THAT phrase Gordon?) and worked FOR the people and known that what you were doing would have consequences SERIOUS consequences at some point.

You should all be in the dock answering to your various courses of action. NONE of you have any moral high ground to pontificate from.

Inflation: Over a Decade in the Making.

 Well, the shit really has hit the fan, the Chickens Really have come Home to Roost, and other proverbs.

Yes, inflation has struck in a big way.

It's not like I was saying this over a decade ago. Back then Money was being printed to prop up the financial institutions and the Banks relied on cheap Chinese goods and cheap imported labour to keep the lid on inflationary pressures. Economists looked into their teacups and the leaves revealed all would be good as long as nothing changed to upset the status quo

Had the supply of any of those two things happened, it was a sure bet to anyone with a brain that inflation would start to creep up.

In the end both happened at much the same time: Brexit killed off the cheap Easter European Labour market and at the same time Covid killed the supply of cheap Chinese goods.

Bingo! The perfect storm conditions arrived. 

So prices started to tick up as demand outstripped supply. The demand for cheap labour outstripped the supply of cheap labour, so companies had the start offering higher wages to poach people. But then again we're only talking going from minimum wage to just above minimum wage. But the inflationary pressure is there and it added an extra 10-20% to bills in Restaurants and Retail.

Covid stopped the supply of cheap Chinese Goods for a while. So stocks dwindled to nothing in the West. Then everyone got the all clear and opened up at the same time. Cue container shortages, the cost of shipping going up 200-300% and a backlog as Chinese factories took weeks to fire up the foundries.

It depends on how savvy the supplier is, but again that another additional cost, anywhere between 5 and 20% on top of the increase above.

Oh and then a little guy in Russia started a little war, just to add Vodka to the bonfire. So fuel costs started rising.

So it cost more to ship the goods from China, it costs more to ship the goods locally in your own country and it costs more to pay the people serving you.

That's why inflation is now at close to 20% in real terms. An it doesn't look like it's going to slide back any time soon. 

Sadly the people responsible, the Banks and the Governments that sanctioned the printing of money to prop up their economies have no way to resolve the issue.

They have no way to import cheap labour, they cannot reduce the price of imported goods. The supply of desperate people from Ukraine will no doubt be cynically exploited by Western corporations. Governments will allow them to work in the West, as a "humanitarian" gesture, but we know the truth. Corporations are desperate for desperate people who will work for minimum wage. 

Why do you think it was mooted at one time to allow the illegal immigrants to work? To undercut the people unable to afford to work so cheaply. And why do you think the Rwanda solution has firmed up just now, when there is apparently a ready supply of Eastern European cheap labour available for the picking? Do you really not understand?

Yep, fuck the working class poor. yet again, several times over. 

It really is time to fuck the globalists instead.

 

"It's Nothing to do with Brexit"

 There's currently a meme on Twitter featuring a lady at a fish market complaining about inflation and the price of container shipping during a BBC (natch) interview.

Sarcastically she says to the camera "It's  nothing to do with Brexit", as if to infer the opposite.

Sadly for her, she's wrong. The cost of shipping containers has increased massively globally. Pre-Covid we could ship a container from Japan for £1500. The cheapest rate is now £9000 post-Covid. 

Brexit has nothing to do with it. It's supply and demand. After the global shutdown, companies have sold out of stock during the post-Covid restart and are demanding stock to be shipped to them, more than likely from China. 

That's EVERY company globally. Can you imagine the sort of demand that generates? There just isn't enough capacity to deliver EVRY container to EVERY company in the world within pre-Covid timescales.

So there will be delays. You want priority shipping? You pay for it. The lady in the Twitter meme was complaining of container shipping going up to £19000. I can believe it, if you have perishable goods (she sells fish and seafood) and you want the container delivered quick enough so your stock doesn't go off, then you'll have to pay a higher price than everyone else to jump the queue. 

That's just the nature of supply and demand love. Globally. Nothing to do with Brexit. Everything to do with Covid, the global shutdown and the restart. 

It's not just us. One of our suppliers has been told there will be a three  month delay in getting alloy wheels shipped to the UK. From Malaysia because the factory/foundry has taken months to restart and the Malaysian company have months worth of orders already placed with them. 

Nothing. To. Do. With. Brexit.

Absolutely.

Just as the shortage of lorry drivers has nothing to do with Brexit either. There is a shortage globally as well. Just look at the companies complaining in America. Sad to say a portion of drivers (not the fittest in the world) died during the pandemic, plus a number of drivers hit the age at which they could no longer drive trucks, or weren't able to renew medicals (everyone knows how bloody difficult it is you see a doctor face-to-face at the moment) and new drivers weren't able to take tests to replace the attrition of the older, retiring drivers. 

HGV driving is a pretty shit job too. So much regulation (medicals, driving hours, tachos and the like) the VOSA vultures ready to pounce on trucks to see if they are a couple of kilos overweight and most companies treating them like shit (not allowing them to use toilets, etc), it's no wonder that having had a rest during the pandemic, a number of drivers have not returned to the job.

In the UK the situation is compounded by East European drivers moving back home, to be with family during the pandemic and/or taking better-paid jobs in Germany, closer to home and within the EU. That's mainly a reflection of the poor wages paid to HGV drivers in the UK. Most East Europeans are now concentrating on local courier van deliveries. Less red tape and regulation and less time away from home, with comparable wages.

Again, nowt to do wi' Bloody Brexit.

Negative Inflation?

Have a look at this headline in this article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8009718.stm

Quite straightforward you might think: the inflation figures have gone negative for the first time in decades. We've been taught since the late seventies that inflation is bad, so negative inflation is good isn't it?

Well, no. You see, these figures take a while to come out, so what you're seeing is a snapshot of prices a few months ago and yes, store chains were closing and prices were being slashed and petrol was at its lowest price.

But what's happened in the last month? Petrol prices have started to rise. It was at its Lowest in January, it crept up February then there was a 5 week hold During February and March. It then started to climb again. This time with a weak pound driving the price, and no recessionary pressure to hold it back.

Food prices have started to firm up again too in the past few weeks as well.

So who do you believe? Statistics and headlines stating the results of 3-month old data, biased to make you feel good ahead of the budget, or your own experience, right now?

Do you believe the BBC, who will highlight any glimmer of news indicating a return to the good old days (like the news of rising house prices the other week), or your own experience of a tough housing market, people being repossessed and food prices increasing?

Do I believe the government's jobless figures, or do I go on my own personal experience where in December there were 6 people waiting to be seen at the same time as me at the jobcentre, but now there are 3 times that?

I'm going with the empirical data.